Nothing
by diesector21
Summary: Some people become so inert in their lives that "normal" becomes the only thing they're capable of. But how does Holly Short handle "normal"? post-TEC. Songfic: Life in Technicolor II - Coldplay


**A/N**: Well, here goes. A fic with little common elements of a short story/one-shot. To be honest, I'm not 100 percent sure what I'm trying to accomplish with this, so...

Yes, I'm wrapping the narrative around the song's concept, but there's a reason for that. After I listened to _Life in Technicolor II_ multiple times and watched the video (with great amusement and hilarity; you should check it out yourself), I realized that despite the lyrics of this song deals with love and other crap like that, it is truly a nonsensical song with no real purpose. Its senselessness gave me the idea for this fic. Enjoy. :3

**Song**: _Life in Technicolor II_ – Coldplay

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Artemis Fowl or any Coldplay songs.

* * *

_7:48 PM Greenwich Mean Time_

Holly suddenly sat up from her futon, rage building inside her head. Growling slightly, the elf rolled out of the bed and stumbled into the bathroom, leaving the source of her anger and annoyance beeping as she turned on the shower.

The hot water washed away her negative thoughts, relaxing her. Holly glanced over to a moonometer set up on one of the shower walls. 7:50, human time. With little time to spare, Holly shut off the water and ran into her wardrobe. Putting on a standard LEP jumpsuit in record time, the Recon elf ran out the door of her apartment, right before she remembered to slap the OFF button on her annoying alarm clock.

_10 minutes, or Root's going to have my badge_, Holly thought while she dashed through along a road filled with unmoving magnacars. _Then again, that 'exceptional' recon I did yesterday could save me._

**There's a wild wind blowin'  
****Down the corner of my street  
** **Every night there are headlights, glowing  
** **There's a cold war comin'**  
**On the radio I heard  
** **Baby, it's a violent world **

_8:42 PM_ _GMT_

Holly fell onto her swivel chair of her cubicle, legs worn out but still active. Standing in Commander Root's office for over half an hour while his red face spouted words which made little sense would do that to you. Despite Root's tongue-lashing, Holly was still relatively cheery, since Root's verbal assault was on insignificant details ("_Iron out your jumpsuit at least once in a while, Short!"_) and she was getting her paycheck today. The rent date was looming quite close, and Holly got stressed a little bit more as each hour passed by.

Holly stared at her desk and groaned, a mound of papers towering over the rest of her little trinkets on her table. Paperwork. And by the looks of it, it's gonna take hours for her to finish the entire pile. But if she wanted her recon to be officially recorded and not have Internal Affairs be up in her business, Holly has to fill out every form. She wouldn't have another recon for at least two weeks, so these papers were the only thing around for her to work on.

_10:03 PM GMT_

The computer screen on Holly's desk lit up, revealing Foaly's face to a burned-out Holly. The centaur chuckled slightly, and his laugh lit up Holly's face.

"Paperwork getting to you?" the centaur asked his elfin friend.

"You should know better than I do. I heard that you were trying to create a more efficient internal LEP system that would fix all of this garbage paperwork."

"Well, those damn bureaucrats in IA won't listen to a word I say. Especially that pig, Ark Sool."

Holly smirked, secretly agreeing in her head.

"Well, I've got nothing to do for the next couple of hours. Wanna go out for lunch, Holly?"

"Sure, right after I finish this redudant paperwork," Holly sighed.

The computer monitor turned off, leaving Holly alone once again with her pen and mound of forms.

**Oh love, don't let me go  
** **Won't you take me where the street lights glow  
** **I can hear it coming,  
** **I can hear the sirens sound  
** **Now my feet won't touch the ground**

_12:50 AM GMT_

Holly sipped on her nettle tea, somewhat annoyed at Foaly's loud slurping of his soup. The two were sitting outside of _Tangerino's_, a five-minute walk from Police Plaza. Her veggie burger was moderately satisfying, but Foaly had opted for more 'exquisite' choices, and got a meal worth several ingots, equal to $30 human USD.

"There's no damn way I'm splitting the bill if you ordered _that,_" Holly said.

"Oh, don't worry. I made a little...'withdrawal' from my budget."

Holly laughed. "You drew from your budget? No wonder Root doesn't want to give you more gold."

"Doesn't really matter to me. I'm working on some next-gen LEP above-ground suit and it's already taking chunks of gold from what gold I have for this month. Hell, I should be lucky if I'm keeping my flat for the next two weeks."

"You're putting your own money into this?"

"Of course. I may be a snobby and annoying-"

"Don't forget pompous," Holly cut in.

"...whatever. I may be snobby, annoying, _and_ pompous sometimes," Foaly said dryly, "but I'm still passionate about my inventions."

Holly glanced over to her moonometer. "Almost 1 AM, human time. We have to leave."

Foaly motioned to a passing waiter and ordered for the check to be given. "I'll pay this time, my treat. Anyways, my meal was monumentally more expensive than yours."

"Thanks, I owe you one."

"No problem. We have to go over some new procedures this afternoon though, because you're not on call for Recon right now. The bigwigs at Retrieval have requested that you test out the new Farshoot neutrino rifle, with your history of excellent accuracy and all."

A waiter came to their table and Foaly dropped a few gold coins into the bill tray, telling the waiter to keep the change. The two got up, and walked back to Police Plaza.

**Time came a creepin'  
** **Oh, and time's a loaded gun  
** **Every road is a ray of light  
** **It goes on and on and on and on**  
**Time only can lead you on  
** **Still, it's such a beautiful night **

_4:41 AM GMT_

Holly stepped out of the locker room, a fresh jumpsuit hanging off her slim frame. The testing of the new Farshoot rifle had not gone well. After three hours of experimentation, the gun blew up while Holly and Foaly were walking away after a continued-fire test was conducted. There were no major injuries, but Holly's suit was covered in shrapnel and dirt. And now, Holly doesn't 'owe' Foaly anything.

Holly coughed, a few particles of ash still in her lungs.

The communicator on Holly's belt beeped. 4:45 human time, time for that scheduled meeting of captains. Holly walked over to the Operations Centre, quickly passing by Foaly's booth to shoot him a glare while the reinforced doors were open. Foaly chuckled silently at the sight of Holly passing by, and returned to his work on his now-demolished Farshoot rifle.

The conference room was only half-filled, and Holly quickly took her assigned seat, which happened to be beside none other than Trouble Kelp. She greeted her long-time friend, and Trouble returned the hellos.

"Hey," Holly asked, "How long do you think this will take?"

"No idea, but I heard Commander Root may be giving a squad-wide debriefing for the month. And you know Root-"

Holly chuckled, cheeks slightly reddening.

"-and judging from that, I don't need to say anything more. Get comfortable in that padded chair, Short."

Holly had no problem with Trouble using her last name for addressing, even if it was in a serious situation. She remembered the first time he had to address her, back in the Academy. His face contorted and grew red, obviously not used to knowing someone with the last name "Short", let alone say it.

Holly pulled out a few forms from her paperwork that was necessary for the meeting. And right at that moment, Foaly walked in.

_Here we go..._

**Oh love, don't let me go  
** **Won't you take me where the street lights glow  
** **I can hear it coming,**  
**Like a serenade of sound  
** **Now my feet won't touch the ground **

_7:22 AM GMT_

Holly stepped out of Police Plaza, tired. Another full day at the office. Sweat, boredom, and liberation was visible on her weary face. As predicted, Commander Root had his stint in the conference, and had talked for nearly an hour before Foaly reminded him that the meeting was only supposed to be 45 minutes long. Literally every captain in the room got overtime that day.

Holly continued her walk home, boots thumping against the proto-asphalt. There were little fairies up at this time, because most citizens would only be up beyond 8 AM human time because they took an above-ground trip. Also, there aren't many nightclubs near this area.

Holly ran up the stairs in her apartment building, neglecting the elevator altogether and refusing to give her jellied legs any rest. Bursting through her apartment's door, she collapsed on her still-open futon. She laid there for the next 10 minutes, every muscle in her body beyond tired.

Slowly, she got up, and went into her wardrobe. Changing back into her shorts and tank top, Holly strolled into the bathroom and took her second shower of the day. The odours and sweat washed away, replaced by the pleasant scent of shampoo and soap.

Deciding to be more 'efficient', Holly brushed her teeth in the shower, snatching every second of sleep that she could.

Still damp from the shower, Holly burst out of the bathroom and flopped onto her futon. Mind swimming, Holly managed to activate the alarm clock and cover herself in the blanket before she became unconscious, letting herself slip into the soft comfort of sleep.

**Gravity, release me  
** **And don't ever hold me down  
** **Now my feet won't touch the ground**

_1:44 PM GMT_

Holly's eyes flickered open, instantly reading her moonometer. Not even 2 PM. The tired elf sat up, insomnia clutching her mind again. Holly had failed to get a good night's rest for almost three weeks, and she couldn't figure out why. Something from the depths of her soul was gnawing at her mind.

Leaving her futon, Holly walked out to the balcony, picking up her communicator on the way. She stared out at her home, Haven City. Most lights from office buildings were off, but a few districts here and there were bright as ever, obviously a hotspot for parties and nightclubs.

Holly turned on her communicator, and selected the _Photos_ submenu. She scrolled through several pictures of her and friends, until she came across a certain portrait. One that made the dissolving feeling in her mind kick into overdrive.

It was a picture of Artemis, candidly talking with Butler.

Holly had snagged the photo when he was discussing a plan during the goblin insurrection. She had never thought much about that picture, until now.

_I miss him_, Holly thought, _and there's no denying that._

Holly fell back onto her futon again, brain shooting off random thoughts. But one statement shone clear through the mud of doubts and disappointments. _Life is simple, but it is ourselves that make it complicated_.

Holly curled up into a fetal position, sleep graciously returning to her.

* * *

**A/N**: Well, this was kinda overdue. I was planning a late-July release, but then I got caught up with family and church stuff. I couldn't even write for the past week because I was volunteering at a summer camp.

Next fic will be PLC. (working title), guaranteed. About damn time. XD


End file.
